Snow Bright
by ThaisLuna
Summary: On the night of his 17th birthday, Harry is suddenly hit by unbelivable pain. Only to wake up to no difference. Slash lies within Draco/Harry. M for saftey as it might get there in later chapters.
1. Prologue

**AN: This is my first fan fiction and my therefore also my first attempt at slash. I would like to thank Sym who helped come up with the plot despite his slight hesitance of involving himself with Drarry fiction. So Sym is Beta/co-writer, even though he won't be doing any of the actual writing... or reading apart from when I bully him to edit chapters.**

**Disclaimer: **If I owned Harry Potter; Ginny would have been killed, Sirius would have lived, and Harry and Draco would have been having hot man sex. I think it is therefore quite obvious that I am just playing with JK's wonderful characters.

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Prologue

_In the smallest bedroom of No. 4 Privet Drive:_

You would think that with the Dark Lord having been defeated two months prior to this moment in time (being roughly 11:30PM July 30th 1997) that Harry would not be required to return to the magic hating household of his only living blood relatives. Well you would have thought wrong. Due to there being a few Death Eaters still on the loose, it was thought best that Harry return to the Dursley's in order to gain as much protection from the blood wards as he could. However with the blood wards wearing off at midnight he would be collected the next day to stay the remainder of the holiday with the Weasley's. The historic event of Harry leaving his Aunt and Uncle's house was a thought that left the only occupant of the small room with bated breath.

It wasn't too long before the old digital clock, once belonging to Dudley Dursley, changed from 11.59 to 12.00 under the watchful gaze of one Harry Potter.

Harry drew breath to wish himself his customary, solitary happy birthday when an odd tingling started between his shoulder blades, a similar feeling also starting at the top of his head. The odd sensation quickly sweeping across his whole body in ever increasing intensity, still originating from the initial regions of his person. At first it had been a feather touch, but even that left him breathless. With each wave escalated in pressure it wasn't long before it felt like needles were piecing every inch of his flesh. _'I wonder if this is what acupuncture feels like_' randomly drifted across his mind before suddenly the pain on the top of his head intensified, however not as much as that from his back. It felt like two daggers were being dragged across his shoulder blades, pushing, oddly enough, from the inside trying to force their way out.

Harry arched off the bed, his mouth open in a silent scream of agony, as the pain continued to grow he was soon only supported by his feet and the top of his head, which were the only part of him in contact with the mattress, not alleviating the pain in his head in the slightest, but giving the illusion of comfort for his back.

Just as quickly as the bizarre feelings started, they left. Deserting his tired body and allowing briefly, before the sleep which quickly followed these events overcame him, thoughts of whether a blood ward breaking was meant to feel like this.

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AN: Right, this story will be continued, but starting on the 2nd December I am backpacking from Beijing to Hong Kong over two and a half months, this means lots of long train and bus journeys with a notepad and pen. When I return to England I will type up all I have written and start uploading semi-regularly.

I know my writing style has much to be desired, so no flames please, constructive criticism is welcome, remember, the more reviews the more likely I will type up the next chapter as soon as I get home despite the jet-lag and malnutrition I will be suffering from.

Thais Luna

xxx


	2. Chapter 1

AN- Umm sorry this is a month later than I said it would be, but I got rather distracted by all the Drarry I had to catch up on, then by the episodes of Supernatural to catch up on, then by Harry Potter/Supernatural fanfic... so I apologise.

Actually the only reason you are getting this is because I couldn't bare to watch SPN season 6 episode 15 because it was making me cringe so much, so after an hour and still being only 21 mins into it, because I had to keep pausing to bury my head under a pillow I decided to type up chapter one instead :) so here it is, bad grammer and all because my friend Sym refuses to edit until I send him my character profile for a D&D campainge...I am such a nerd :'(

Anyway enjoy!

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Chapter 1 - A Rather Fond Fairwell

"What are you people doing in my house?"

It was in this manner that Harry was woken on the morning of the 31st. In a sleepy daze he slowly came to the realisation of who his uncle was yelling at. Jumping (or falling depending on your point of view) out of bed, Harry grabbed his glasses and threw on the one set of clothes not packed in his trunk. After a brief look in the mirror he decided that trying to sort out his hair was not worth the effort. He flew (figuratively not literally of course) down the stairs, grinning at the small group of red heads that stood in the hall of his aunt and uncle's house.

"Hey mate! How you doing?" Ron smiled down at his best friend.

"Wo hen hao xiexie, ni ne?" Harry grinned up at the significantly taller (at least compared to him) Weasley. At Ron's (and the other two Weasleys') baffled look he explained, "I've been rather bored this past month, so have resorted to teaching myself basic Chinese."

"Right...Sure our not turning into Hermione?" At Harry's scowl he quickly continued, " you got your stuff ready?"

"Yeah all packed, could you come up and help me bring it down?"

"Mate your seventeen."

"Yeah...and?" Harry looked at Ron, Fred and George's snickering faces.

"Well my mentally

"Challenged little friend" the Twins said, each looping an arm around Harry's shoulders.

"You seem to have forgotten what happens

"When a wizard turns seventeen."

"No I haven't" Harry grumbled, "you undergo unbelievable amounts of pain across you back, and the mother of all headaches." Harry frowned at the concerned looks passing between the three Weasley brothers over his head.

"We were talking about you now being of age."

"What do you mean 'unbelievable amount of pain'?"

"I was hoping it was normal." Mumbled harry, slumping on the bottom stair. "Maybe that's how it's meant to feel when a blood ward breaks." He looked hopefully up at them.

"I don't know mate...tell you what; we'll get 'Mione on it when we get to the Burrow, I'm sure she'll be thrilled to have a new project."

"Oh great I'm going to be her test subject for the rest of the summer." He grimaced.

"Come on she isn't that bad," Ron's attempt at defending his girlfriend was halted by Harry's raised eyebrow, "Well...maybe she is, anyway, hurry up, better get your trunk quickly, your uncle said we better be out in ten minutes 'or else'." Ron snickered as Harry scrambled up the stair, knowing that they were already five minutes over the deadline, not that Vernon could do much to three fully legal wizards.

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Harry had made his way out onto the landing, his newly shrunk and lightend trunk safely in his pocket when he heard the three red-heads having a hurried and hushed conversation.

"But I'm sure the Potter's don't have an inheritance" muttered George.

"Yeah and it's not like he has suddenly sprouted a tail" Fred interjected.

"Hmm, maybe it was just the blood wards breaking... Hey Harry, you all ready?" Ron added loudly after spotting Harry at the top of the stairs.

"Yeah...I suppose I should say goodbye to the Dursleys, seeing as I will hopefully never see them again."

Right on cue Mr. Dursley shoved his nead out of the kitchen, "You gone yet boy?"

"No uncle, otherwise you wouldn't be talking to me" Seeing Vernon's face turning a particularly unattractive shade of puce he quickly continued, "I just wanted to say goodbye as this is the last time you will see me and well it couldn't have been easy having a baby turn up unwanted on your doorstep, so thank you for raising me...and...stuff." Harry trailed off as he realised that all three Dursleys and the Weasleys were staring at him. Fred snapped out of his daze first, looking across at the Dursleys.

"I don't know why Harry is thanking you all for using him as your own personal house elf. Quite honestly I think it proves that no matter how crap your upbringing, you can still have manners." Glaring at the Dursleys he grabbed Harry as George attached himself to Ron, apparating them all away from No. 4 Privet Drive for the last time.

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On arrival the Weasley brothers rounded on Harry, only to find him even shorter than expected seeing as he had fallen over during landing. Reaching down to pull him up Ron said, "Just, you know, out of interest, why in the name of Merlin's most baggy Y-fronts did you thank the people who made your life a living hell while you lived under the same roof as them?"

Having taken the hand and now standing upright at his perfectly respectable (in his opinion, which isn't to say it's incorrect) height of 5"4', Harry proceeded to stutter and stumble across various syllables before saying, "I'm, umm, not actually sure. It just felt like I should say it, or something. Look it shocked them into silence, hence allowing our hasty escape."

"Right..." was all Ron was able to say before Harry was engulfed in a ball of brown fur, otherwise known as Hermione Granger.

"Oh my God Harry! It's so good to see you, how's your summer been? Oh Happy Birthday! Can't believe I almost forgot to say that, anyway, we have all your presents in the sitting room, you must come through and open them now so Mrs. Weasley can start on supper." While she paused to breath Ron quickly interjected.

"Hey, 'Mione Harry was wondermphmmm" He found himself hastily muffled by Harry's hand.

"It can wait! So 'Mione, where are these presents?" Harry asked, smiling innocently at Hermione's suspicious look. When she had turned to lead them out Harry muttered to Ron "For God sakes let whatever high she is on wear off before making sure that you won't see me for the rest of the holiday."

Looking vaguely ashamed of himself, Ron followed the others into the sitting room to start the celebration for Harry's seventeenth birthday.

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Just quick heads up, the y on my keyboard sticks, so there might be a few cases where it says ou instead of you, I think I found them all, but if not I'm sorry.

According to the notes I made in the notebook I wrote this is, this was writen while taking off from Yantai on my way to Hong Kong and whilst sitting on the foor in an appartment in Hong Kong...I was wondering why the first half was so illegible.


	3. Chapter 2

I am so sorry! I meant to get this up a week after the first one, which just goes to show how hopeless I am. Before letting you get on with the story I would just like to thank everyone who has added this to story alerts and favorited it, as well as the four kind people who have taken the time to review what passes for very poor quality writing.

So without futhe ado

**Disclaimer**: Harry and Draco belong to each other, I gain no monetarry reward for showing this to the world, so please don't sue me I am only having fun. Also I did steal the presents as I couldn't think of anything else at the time, the reason for this is explained in the end notes...

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Chapter 2 - On Presents and Masks

Everyone was gathered (squashed) in the sitting room when Harry entered. He was promptly smothered by Mrs Weasley, "Happy birthday Harry. It's so good to see you. I'm so happy we can now keep you from those horrible relatives of yours."

"Mum I think he needs to breath" Charlie said from his position on the sofa.

"Oh, of course, sorry dear." As she let go Harry took a gulp of air and sent a grateful look to Charlie, who winked back, causing Harry to hope that everyone would think the flush he was sporting was due to lack of oxygen."Anyway, now everyone is here I think it's safe to take a day off from preparations for the wedding." She smiled around as everyone looked relieved. The wedding was in a week and apparently preparations for the guests' arrival were already well underway.

"Come on Harry, open your presents, here's mine" Hermione presented him with a beautifully wrapped box.

Smiling at her he ripped into it causing her and Ginny to wince at the spoiled paper, not like it would be used again anyway. Inside lay a new sneakoscope and a book. Pulling it out; he glanced at the title _'Rare Magical Beings and Their Relationship with Wizards Throughout History'_

"I was trying to find a book you won't have read before, you haven't have you?" she asked suddenly worried about her gift.

"No, no I haven't, but I'm sure it's a fascinating subject." Hermione smiled as he set the gifts to one idea while reaching out to the small pile and picking up the gift on top.

Opening it he found a watch, similar to the one Ron had received; "That one's from us dear, its tradition to give a wizard a watch on his seventeenth birthday." Harry stood and gave her a quick hug before returning to the other presents.

He received a supply of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes from the twins, "There are a few prototypes in there."

"You'll have to tell us the results" They grinned wickedly at him and he briefly wondered if it was a good idea to use the prototypes.

Bill and Fleur gave him a charmed razor, "You have to tell it exactly what you want. Mine managed to shave off one of my eyebrows before I could stop it."

And finally; a pair of dragon hide trousers from Charlie "They're Horntail, charmed to fit no matter what size you are."

Ron and Ginny's presents were missing, but before anyone could comment on it Ron had grabbed Harry and announced "We're just going to put his thing in my room we'll be down in a minute." With that he pulled Harry out the room, disappearing with a blur of red up the stairs.

On arrival at Ron 's room Harry was left to his own devices while Ron manically ransacked the pile beside his bed, obviously looking for the absent present, which seemed to have buried itself under a mountain of articles Harry was loath to actually identify.

Harry had made himself comfortable sitting on the camp bed set up for his stay by the time Ron had turned around and presented a book to Harry.

"Having Hermione as your girlfriend must be having a beneficial effect on you" Harry smiled at Ron before looking at the book's title, '_Twelve Failsafe Ways to Charm Witches_' the colour drained from his face and he zoned out, losing track of what Ron was saying for a while. Coming to, he found Ron had stopped speaking; he plastered on a fake smile and looked at Ron. "Thanks Ron, I'm sure it will be useful."

Grinning at Harry, Ron's stomach rumbled "Come on lets go get some lunch, better leave the book up here though, wouldn't do to have mum find it" With that Harry was once again dragged through the Weasley's home. He felt bad about not telling Ron the truth about himself. A truth which he had only recently accepted himself. Oh he had known for a while, a good few years, but acknowledging and accepting where two very different things, and it had taken until midway through his sixth year during the short spell he had dated Ginny for him to come to the conclusion that ignoring it was only going to hurt him in the long run. He had finally (with a little bit of help) decided that he couldn't lie to himself any longer and had broken up with her, not wanting her to know the real reason he had made something up about not wanting to date because of the war and the fast approaching final battle. He had realised at the time that this excuse would only work temporarily, but he wasn't ready for any more people to know quite yet. Some people knew, but not particularly because he wanted to tell them. Hermione had confronted him about it after he broke up with Ginny. Apparently she had worked it out at some point and wanted to know if breaking up with Ginny meant he was finally going to be honest to himself. The other person who knew was actually not meant to overhear Harry's angry words to himself, but he did and actually helped Harry accept it during their short conversation.

_Flashback_

Harry had just escaped Ginny's attention and was feeling bad about a lot of things; bad about stringing Ginny along, for using her to hide behind, but most of all about being different, well not so much feeling bad about that one, more angry than any other feeling in fact. He walked down to the lake, the lawns surprisingly deserted for a Sunday afternoon. He sat at the base of a weeping willow its branches hiding him from the world and, punctuating every other word by hitting the back of his head against the trunk, said "Why the fuck can't I just once be normal?"

"I would say it's because of the permanent damage you are doing to your brain there, but as I am pretty certain there is nothing in there to damage," Drawled a voice from above him "there must be another reason, if you feel like sharing do continue, blackmail material is always welcome."

Startled, Harry leapt up from his seat to see Malfoy jumping out of the tree, "Malfoy is it just me or do you have a strange fixation with being up trees?"

"Did you know I was up there till I spoke?" at Harry's silence Draco smirked "That's why I have a 'strange fixation' with trees." Harry looked at him sceptically before collapsing back onto the ground. "So going to tell me what had you attempting to bash your brains out on this unfortunate tree?" Malfoy sat down next to him.

"Why would I tell you? And why are you being so nice?" Harry looked across at him, not quite sure why he hadn't legged it while he had the chance.

"Because we are alone and whatever is stopping you being 'normal', apart from that scar, is obviously upsetting you." He ran a hand through his hair, pushing a lose stand back from where it had fallen into his eyes, "Despite what people think; I am not my father," Harry narrowed his eyes at him, "I'm not, honest. I'm not even an evil git... most of the time. It's a mask, I behave in the way people expect me to, and as long as that snake bastard is alive I will continue to do so."

Sighing Harry looked at Draco for a second before coming to a decision, if he couldn't tell his friends he would tell someone (even if said someone was his rival), because having no one know was killing him. "Actually it's because of what people expect of me. Not the Voldemort thing, there are so many people helping me with that and it isn't like the wizarding world thinks; it doesn't have to be me who kills him, at least not by myself. I don't really care what they all think..."

"You're rambling."

Shooting a weak glare at him Harry continued, "It's what everyone I know, particularly the Weasley's, want me to be, and the fact I don't want to disappoint them by being myself. So I find myself dating Ginny despite knowing I will only ever love her as a sister."

"So find another girl, there must be one here you like, and it's not like the Weasels will hate you for being happy."

"That's the problem; there isn't a _girl_ I like"

Malfoy raised an eyebrow at him "So the Golden Boy is gay?" Harry scowled and went to get up, muttering to himself, but Draco grabbed his arm and pulled him rather determinedly back to the ground, "Sorry, old habits die hard. But to be honest you are far too cute for the girls." At Harry's incredulous look he laughed, "No offence Potter, but you do look like a kitten."

Harry briefly realised that Draco had obviously thought him to have been incredulous about being called cute and had striven to prove the point instead of just being incredulous over being called cute my Draco Malfoy. "Thanks" he finally mumbled.

"It isn't a bad thing," before Harry was sure he had heard right, Draco had hurried on, "Really as long as you are honest to yourself it's ok, and these things have a way of working themselves out". They sat in silence for a while before Draco turned to Harry again, "Look why don't we make a deal? When the snake bastard dies for good we both ditch our masks, deal?"

Harry looked at him hesitantly before finally accepting the outstretched hand.

_End Flashback_

Harry was suddenly pulled from his musings (quite literally) and into an open doorway.

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I had trouble with this chapter, found it very difficult to write the dialogue without it sounding to stilted and forced during the flashback, so it has been rewritten a number of times from  
the plane to Beijing and the lounge of the Lama temple youth hostel with a pint of tsingtao... the pint of tsingtao might actually be the reason it was so stilted in the first place...

Be sure to let me know of any mistakes.

Thais

PS. oh my this was four pages! My A2 essays rarely reached that length!


	4. Chapter 3

Sorry I'm a month late, I have no excuse other than I was reading too much to type up and edit this chapter. It is slightly shorter than the last one I think. Anyway on with the show.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter no matter what the voices in my head say.

UnBeted all mistakes my own, please let me know if you spot any.

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Chapter 3 - Polite Lunchtime Conversation

Harry was aware of the unfortunately familiar sensation of Ginny's lips against his... it wasn't pleasant. Before he could push her away she had pulled back but not far enough for Harry's comfort, so he took a step back too.

"Happy birthday Harry," She smiled, "I didn't know what to get you so I thought I would let you know that I am ready to get back together."

Harry was still rather confused about how he ended up in this situation, he realised Ron must have left him behind while he had been thinking about his deal with Malfoy. The deal... Ginny... Voldemort's dead... fuck, he was going to have to tell her. It never crossed his mind to break the deal, even if it had he would have dismissed the idea.

Bracing himself he took a deep breath, "Ginny, I can't get back together with you"

"But you said..."

"I know what I said" He cut it, "but I was making excuses, Ginny I can't go out with you."

"Can't or won't?" Ginny said looking furious, funny he thought she would have been upset , not angry.

"...a bit of both I think. Look I'm not doing this well, and it isn't because of you, I love you, but as a sister then again I will never love any girl as more than my sister." Harry becoming aware of his rambling decided to just come out and say it, "Oh for Merlin's sake, I'm gay Ginny,"

Whatever reaction he was expecting it wasn't for Ginny to start laughing, "I wouldn't worry about that Harry; every boy goes through that stage."

"Even Ron?" Too shocked by her reaction to say anything else.

"Well no, but this is Ron we are talking about." She paused looking at him, "I won't pressure you, just let me know when you are straight again." She left, leaving Harry baffled and rather annoyed that she hadn't taken him seriously.

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Harry finally made it down to lunch, a small affair in preparation for a large dinner which was going to be Harry's birthday party. Sitting himself down next to Hermione and Charlie he grabbed some food, the annoyance had developed into anger that she couldn't accept him for who he was.

"Harry are you alright?" Hermione had obviously picked up on his bad mood.

"I told her" he whispered furiously at her, "I told her and she laughed and said it was a phase I was going through. If it wasn't for that dratted deal I would have come up with an excuse...eventually. If he doesn't uphold his end, I am going to enjoy pulling every one of his platinum blonde hairs from his gorgeous head." Here Harry paused, glancing at Hermione who had her eyebrows raised at him, "did I just say gorgeous?" his whisper even more hushed.

"Yes, Freudian slip perhaps?" at Harry's vaguely confused look she just sighed. "So who is this gorgeous platinum blonde?" apparently this had been said louder than intended.

"What's this Harry?" Charlie's voice boomed from beside him, catching the whole table's attention "You've got yourself a blonde, what's he like then?"

Harry stared at him in horrified silence for a second before banging his dead down on the table and covering it with his arms, three thoughts fighting for dominance whilst going round his head; 'I've just been outed at the Weasley's lunch table', 'I do not think Draco Malfoy is gorgeous' and occasionally; 'I knew I shouldn't blush so much around Charlie.'

Hermione didn't make matters better by patting his back and saying into the partially stunned silence "Don't worry I'm sure he likes you too."

"Yeah, any guy who doesn't"

"like you is blind." The twins added their thoughts on the matter, causing Harry to glance up at them shocked, "Really is quite obvious mate."

"Yeah you haven't looked seriously at a girl in years." Harry reburied his head to escape the twin looks of shocked anger on Ron and Ginny's face.

"You where serious!" and "How come I'm the last to know?" where shouted in almost perfect harmony.

Harry looked up at them his anger back, "Firstly, Ginny of course I was serious, why would I joke about this. Secondly, you're not the last to know, before today I had only told one person." He ignored Hermione's raised eyebrows, after all he had never told her, she had assumed.

"Then how come everyone knows." Ron huffed apparently more annoyed that he hadn't been told than with the actual news, Harry noted with relief.

"Because Ronikins, we are not completely oblivious to what is going on around us."

"I'm not that oblivious..."

"Ron you're his best friend, if anyone should have seen the signs it would have been you."

Before anyone else could add their thoughts on the matter Harry said, "Now that everyone is clear on this, can we change the topic or at least finish lunch and let me escape?"

"Of course dear," Molly had just snapped out of her stupor, "hurry up everyone I need the kitchen free to make dinner for everyone tonight." With Molly's order everyone set about finishing their lunch.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief and went back to his sandwiches only to have Charlie say to him, "I'm still interested in who this blonde is."

Hermione opened her mouth with a look of dawning realisation, Ron in a moment of brillient observaiton saw Harry's look of absolute panic and said quickly "Hermione I've just remembered something Harry said earlier, could we talk to you about it after lunch."

"Oh, I'd forgotten about that." At Ron's look of incredulity he amended, "well...momentarily slipped my mind."

Fred and George both snorted, "Only you,"

"Could forget something like that."

"Something like what?" Molly asked looking worriedly at Harry.

"Oh it's nothing Mrs Weasley, I'm sure Hermione will have the answer in one of her books." This said he got on with lunch ignoring the worried looks he was getting from half the table.

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"Harry, that isn't what happens when a blood ward breaks, infact you can't feel a blood ward breaking, it just disappears."

They were sitting in Ron's room with Harry having told them both exactly what happened earlier that morning.

"Then what could it be?" Harry asked only now starting to worry, "You don't think it has anything to do with the Death Eaters which are still on the loose?"

"No I don't" Hermione sat looking thoughtful for a while, "in fact, the only thing I can think it could be is that you came into an inheritance."

"Yeah that's what Fred, George and I thought." Ron added, "Only they don't think the Potter's had one."

Harry, thoroughly confused by this point asked "What do you all mean by an 'inheritance'."

"Well," Hermione said slowly, "there is a possibility that you aren't, entirely, human."

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So I am trying to get some of my original fiction in decent enough condition to post on fictionpress, which could be the reason this one took so long. This chapter was writen over christmas while in Shanghai, which might be why it was shorter than the rest as I didn't sit still much in SH.


	5. Chapter 4

I'm so sorry! I have a very long list of excuses starting with dying laptop and ending in University as to why this has taken me so long to type up, really the only reason I typed this up this morning was because I am trying as hard as possible to delay having to do a literature search for my History lecture about Manchuria between 1911 and 1949. So without further ado here is the chapter.

Disclaimer: I'm just playing I have no claim over Harry Potter.

UnBeted all mistakes my own, please let me know if you spot any.

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Chapter 4 – On research and Revelations.

"Dad, can we have a word?" Fred and George had decided to tell their parents about Harry's odd coming of age, they saw him as a little brother and were worried about any odd occurrence which involved him, which meant almost every odd occurrence they knew of.

Arthur Weasley looked up from Sirius' bike which he had been tinkering with, "What's wrong boys?"

"Well we were just wondering if the Potter's have a creature inheritance." George started.

"See Harry said he felt something at midnight which sounds like he came into an inheritance"

"But he hasn't sprouted a tail or developed an aversion to sunlight."

"So we weren't really sure and thought we had better let you and mum know."

Mr Weasley thought for a moment before saying "Well I don't think they do, but if Harry says he felt something like that we had better let Dumbledore know, he probably knows something about it we don't."

Fred and George exchanged looks; they hadn't meant for anyone else to be told. They knew Harry would hate making everyone worried about him. But at the same time they were relieved that something was being done to find out if anything was wrong with their adopted brother.

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Harry stared at them dubiously, "What do you mean by not entirely human?"

"Well some pureblood families have, in the past, married the more humanoid of the Magical Creatures"

"Yeah like Vampires, high elves and even in rare cases the fae and Guardians." Ron said, rather too excited for Harry's liking.

"Doesn't that rather defeat the purpose of pureblood?"

"Well no actually, as the creature blood is often seen as more magical than the wizard's. Actually the book I gave you explains it quite well."

Ron snorted "sure you should have dropped divination 'Mione"

"Oh shut up Ron." She said as she reached for the book, but Harry got there first.

"Ok, I'll look at that later but honestly if I have come into an inheritance surely I would look different?"

"Yes, well, not all inheritances are that strong, and just mean that your body acknowledges this change. Or sometimes the blood is so old it is dormant your whole lie, for example I am sure the Malfoy's have Veela in their lineage but all it does is make them pale as it is now too diluted to cause an inheritance. However what you described sounds like a full inheritance, so it's likely that any physical changes you have, have a trigger, such as finding a soul mate or accepting a …" here she paused, squinting her eyes at Harry she asked, "you sure it was your back and the top of your head that hurt, nowhere else?"

"Just those two why?" However before he had finished speaking, Hermione was already out the door heading towards her books.

"…well at least she has an idea of what you are"

"Urgh… just what everyone wants when they turn seventeen, finding out they are a what not a who."

""You're a who as well Harry." A moment of silence past before Ron continued. "Surely because you have no physical changes it narrows down the search, all the inheritances I know of are obvious. Maybe we can look thorough the books and see if there are any which sound like you." As selfless as Ron's offer to do research was, Harry could see his eye straying to the window where his brothers could be seen getting the garden ready for that night.

"Why don't I have a quick look now then come out and join you in the garden in a bit?" Harry asked, giving Ron an escape route.

"If you're sure mate." However he was pretty much already out the door.

Harry just lifted the book and waved him out.

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When Harry came out into the garden an hour or so later he was no closer to discovering what he was or even if what he had felt had even been an inheritance.

He watched as Ron lobed a cursing gnome over the hedge and into the field beyond. For the second time that day he thought of his conversation with Malfoy. As he thought of the brief moment Malfoy had grabbed his arm and father forcibly kept him sitting the top of his head started to tingle. Running his hand through his hair he thought he felt… he frantically ran his hands over his head again, finding only hair he let out the breath he had been holding and thought _funny what paranoia can do to you._

Seeing Ron being ganged up on by a small mob of ten or so gnomes Harry made his way over to make sure he didn't get too badly bitten

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The few people Molly had invited for the dinner all arrived in short time. Around the table in the garden sat the Lupins, Luna, Neville and his grandmother as well as the Weasley contingent. Harry had strategically placed himself between Remus and Neville with a still fuming Ginny down the other end of the table. The position also kept him a safe distance from Hermione who would have spent the whole evening theorising on the research she had done earlier. Not that Harry wasn't grateful; only, he wanted to pretend that his birthday party was normal. That he didn't have the prospect of growing additional body parts at a moment's notice. Reminding himself of his moment of paranoia he quickly turned his attention back to the conversation going on around him. Neville, it seemed, had just been telling everyone what he had got. Most of the presents had been sent from the small group of Hogwarts students sitting around the table.

"Harry," Neville said whilst nudge his elbow, "why does Ginny look like she wants to kill you?"

""Umm well I told her earlier that we can't get back together and she's taking it rather badly."

"So you're sticking to your and Malfoy's deal then?"

Harry's face flooded with blood, "What! How do you… What?"

"I was at the lake that day and overheard yo…"

"HARRY!" turning his still rather red face in the direction of Hermione's screech (There was really no other word for it) , he saw her gaze had rather avidly come to rest on the top of his head. Raising a hand to his head he felt the odd protrusions from earlier, this time they were definitely there. He clamped his hands down over them, hoping no one had managed to get a close look at them, whatever they were.

"Harry what were you just talking about?"

"No one, nothing." He realised his slip too later sending a beseeching look to Neville hoping he wouldn't say anything.

"Harry this could be important!" the whole table was starting at him, giving Harry an odd sense of deja vu. "Any clue can help at this point. If we…"

Harry tuned her out, but what she had said stuck with him; maybe there was a link between thinking of Malfoy and sprouting random appendages. Even as the thought of Draco entered his head he felt a slight tingle start down his back. He frantically looked around the table for a distraction, catching sight of Ginny he thought back to earlier when she had accosted him, instantly the tingling stopped and the lumps under his hands disappeared. Lowering his hands he gave a sigh of relief.

"Whatever they were they've gone now."

"Harry you grew white fluffy ears from the top of your head you cannot just brush this off." Hermione huffed.

"Yeah, they made you look like a kitten." Feed added helpfully.

Why did kitten sound so familiar? Harry wondered, oh year Draco had said….

They were back, he could tell now without checking. Suddenly from beside him Neville burst out laughing, between gasps he managed to get out, "I'd forgotten he called you that."

At everyone's questioning looks Harry found that once again the safest thing to do was bang his head down on the table and leave it there.

* * *

I will apologise again for the lateness, but I am almost out of pre written chapters so you may have to bare with me. Sorry if this was slightly fractured it was written in four different place, all with quite a bit of time between them, so I am sorry if between Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai and a train to Chengdu some of the flow is lost.

Now a quick thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I am terrible at replying so I thought I would answer one question now... well the chapter kind of answered it...but anyway:

Shishiri - Sorry no Draco yet, but he is on his way, he just missed his portkey :)

A quick thanks to everyone who Favorited and story alerted this, those notifications are some of my favourite emails.

See you all next time


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